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Crystal Bridges sets opening date

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will open Nov. 11, 2011, director Don Bacigalupi announced today at a meeting of the Arkansas State Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission meeting in Bentonville. What you are seeing in the photograph above, courtesy the Crystal Bridges website, are the buildings on the north end of the site, taken from the parking deck, as they appeared in September. The curved buildings, with the exception of the one on the lower right, are the galleries. Wondering: Will curved walls present a challenge for hanging art? We'll see, and much sooner than we thought, a date that sounds almost impossible to me given the state of construction.

I'm trying to figure out if there's a special reason for Nov. 11 other than the fact that it's Armistice Day, a federal holiday honoring veterans. Ideas?

Last week the museum, which Alice Walton is building and filling at unimaginable expense, announced more of its holdings: "Cattleya Orchid, Two Hummingbirds and a Beetle," ca. 1875-1890, an oil on canvas by Martin Johnson Heade; "A French Music Hall," a 1906 oil on canvas by Everett Shinn, and "The Steel Mill," 1930, an oil on canvas on masonite by Thomas Hart Benton. They are on exhibit at the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa along with a work previously known to be in the collection, "October Interior," 1963, an oil on canvas by Fairfield Porter. The charming Shinn is below.